Now this is the Schoenbrunn Palace, just a little summer place. If our ship ever comes in, if our bird ever lands in that bush or if our chicken ever hatches an egg, this is the kind of place I am considering with my piece of that pie. And this is just the front. Empress Marie Theresa, master politician, great leader of a nation, mother of 16 children, not afraid to marry them off for advantage either, liked her summers on the outskirts of the city. I might too.
This is the backyard. The gardens are extensive to the right and left. The Gloriette or building with no apparent purpose is at the top of the hill. Franz Joseph and his wife Elizabeth (known as Sisi) spent summers here too.
View from the fountain in front of the Gloriette. Oh the Schoenbrunn is full of art, fancy rooms, period furniture, and rooms decorated from Franz Joseph's travels. He was emperor from 1848 to 1916. His mindset was part of the reason the death rate of soldiers in WWI was so very very high. The old military leadership thought more like the Civil War while the equipment and machinery was more like WWII.
Just a little thing.
That is Patt waving on the steps to the left of the monstrosity that is something resembling a Greek or Roman statute over a lion. There were four of them. There was lots of statutory in the gardens most quite attractive and copies of Roman and Greek art. The usual, Hercules bashing someone's head, a Greek or Roman God capturing a woman who forgot to dress that day and so on.
We also went to the Military Museum. Austria's history is linked to its military success or failure as a bulwark against Islam and the ambitions of other European emerging nations. I liked this guy. No doubt as to his intentions. The actual painting is probably 10-12 feet high. I think it would look good behind someone's desk.
The museum had tons of armor and swords as well as the car of the nephew of the Emperor Franz Joseph, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. whose assassination on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo precipitated World War I. Note bullet hole just behind spare tire - this bullet killed Ferdinand's wife Sofie, the second bullet killed the archduke (this was the second assassination attempt that day).
The museum also had a pretty good section of WWI and WWII memorabilia including a uniform of a Austrian member of the German Waffen SS complete with a death's head patch on the headgear. I was sort of surprised to see how much WWI and WWII stuff they had in the museum. (Sorry about the quality of the photo)
From the Belvedere Museum, one of my new favorite museums, comes my new very favorite painting. This was painted by Wilhelm Trubner about 1878. A little humor there with the title too. Any idea of what the next painting with Caesar would be titled if Wilhelm did two paintings about him and a river in Italy? A little understanding of classical history helps. (google helps with that)
Caesar at the Rubicon
Also at the Belvedere was this picture by an artist who for the time being will be unknown. Patt liked this one.
Some of the art in the Belvedere was from the collection of Empress Marie Theresa's favorite daughter and her husband who had been King and Queen of the Netherlands briefly until Napoleon beat Austria and the Netherlands in a war. Well, the daughter and son-in law and their 500 servants had to load up their art collection and household belongings into three barges and head back home to Vienna. Only two barges made it back. Never mind, the two barges were still a lot.
My favorite part of the story - the son-in-law, who apparently did nothing after not being King, and becoming a widower, without producing a child with the Empresses' daughter and due to said daughter's love for him and a tightly written will, he remained with"all his dignities and well circumstanced throughout the remainder of his life". Not real sure what that means, but I will take it.
Patt and I also took a cruise on the Danube River, starting in the Canal built as part of flood control project abut 100 years ago. Due to the cold cloudy day we were two of the few on the ship and had a very pleasant trip.
A not so roughing it fisherman - TV satellite, solar panels, and a net that takes no more work than lowering onto the river bottom, leaving a while then using the counter weights to lift and viola, its done.
We passed 15 or 20 or more cruise line ships tied up as much as four across. No wonder the city was full of people.
And guess who likes to ride the Hop On Hop Off buses — we do. Well especially I do. And we did here too. We got the pass that included free admission into museums, boat rides and such and gosh it was worth it. We did not get the first in line pass but the crowds were not too bad except for the occasional double grouping of tour groups in a museum or two. Then things could get clogged up.
But we saw art, here from the Kunsthistorisches Museum. This museum, the largest of the many we were in, had art from Rubens, Caravaggio, van Eck, Raphael, Vermeer and a whole lot more artists. It also had ancient collections, jewels, large gold objects from the second century BC. . .
And I also like Rembrandt's self portrait. He painted himself with a few years behind him and a few difficulties as part of his life. Not some idealized delusional version of himself. At least that was according to the recording on the audioguide.
There were several painters/artists copying existing work of the masters. I like that idea. And watching them a bit.
And the Hapsburgs were ambitious. Not satisfied with beating the Turks in Europe, they fought with Arabs in North Africa.
Now on to Prague.
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